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There was an “astonishing” failure by government to plan for the economic impact of a possible flu-like pandemic, parliament’s financial watchdog has said.
MPs on the cross-party public accounts committee concluded that government schemes were drawn up “on the hoof” in mid-March by Rishi Sunak’s Treasury, weeks after the first case of coronavirus was detected in the UK. The delay risked leaving sectors of the UK economy behind, according to a report published on Thursday:
Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
The US president Donald Trump has claimed to be comfortable with his son Barron and his grandchildren going back to school, arguing that schools should be open despite concerns from many that it could lead to more infections.
Trump also urged young people to avoid packed bars and to take other steps to limit the spread of the virus.
The US state of California has recorded its highest number of new cases in a single day, as the state surpasses New York for the greatest total of cases in the country.
The state saw 12,807 confirmed cases on Tuesday, the governor, Gavin Newsom, announced on Wednesday. That figure brings the state’s total to more than 413,576 since the pandemic began, Newsom announced.
Israeli lawmakers have empowered the country’s government to order anti-coronavirus curbs with limited parliamentary oversight, stirring opposition fears for the country’s democratic health, Reuters reports.
After early success, the prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been struggling with resurgent contagions. Sporadic closures of various sectors of the economy have deepened public vexation, sparking daily demonstrations.
By a vote of 48-35, the Knesset ratified a “Grand Corona Law” that would allow the government to impose restrictions it deems urgent – such as a threatened new lockdown – with lawmakers reviewing such decisions only after 24 hours.
Other anti-coronavirus measures not deemed urgent by the government would go into effect only after a Knesset review.
Bolivia’s plan to hold elections in September is increasingly in doubt amid rising coronavirus deaths, and reports that police have recovered the bodies of hundreds of suspected Covid-19 victims.
In the past five days, a special police unit had found 420 bodies in streets, vehicles and homes in the capital, La Paz, and in Bolivia’s biggest city, Santa Cruz, authorities said on Tuesday. Between 80% and 90% of them are believed to have had the virus.
Elections scheduled for September were seen as a key step in stabilising Bolivia’s democracy after a year of political tumult that reached its peak in November when Evo Morales was forced to resign as president by the military.
But, this week, a committee that advises the health ministry on outbreak containment measures said in a letter to the country’s top election official that holding the elections as scheduled would not be advisable because of the rapid spread of the virus.
In Scotland, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay traditional street festival has been called off and tickets have been withdrawn. A statement from organisers Underbelly said:
It is clear to all parties that the famous street party cannot take place in its current form in 2020 and tickets are today being taken off sale. Customers who have booked tickets will be contacted in the next 14 days to be offered a full refund.
An announcement on the 2020-21 Edinburgh’s Hogmanay programme will take place towards the end of August.
Tickets had been on sale since 1 January and it was previously said talks about the event were positive.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
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Global cases passed 15m. The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 15m on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data. Known coronavirus deaths number 617,832.
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US daily coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 for first time since June. The seven-day average for the number of deaths in the country has been slowly rising this month, according to multiple data analyses, and went past the 1,000 mark on Tuesday, taking US fatalities to more than 142,000.
- Australia to post biggest budget deficit since second world war. The government that went to the last federal election declaring it was “back in black” will on Thursday unveil the largest budget deficit since the second world war, reflecting the substantial fiscal support rolled out during the pandemic and a decline in revenue because of a contraction in activity.
- Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases exceed 750,000 - Reuters tally. The tally showed the continent had 751,151 cases, 15,721 deaths and 407,461 recoveries. Cases crossed the 500,000 mark on 8 July.
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Female leaders have been better at tackling Covid-19, says ECB chief. The differences in policies and communication were “quite stunning” in countries led by women, said the European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde.
- US agrees to pay Pfizer $2bn for Covid-19 vaccine doses by end of year. The Trump administration will pay Pfizer nearly $2bn for a December delivery of 100m doses of a Covid-19 vaccine the pharmaceutical company is developing. The agreement is part of a plan to ramp up manufacturing in the event a vaccine is approved.
The UK government’s flagship test-and-trace system is failing to contact thousands of people in areas with the highest infection rates in England, raising further questions about the £10bn programme described by Boris Johnson as “world-beating”.
Local leaders and directors of public health are demanding more control over the tracing operation amid concerns that their ability to contain the virus is being put at risk.
Data obtained by the Guardian shows that in areas with the highest infection rates in England, the proportion of close contacts of infected people being reached is far below 80%, the level the government’s scientific advisers say is required for test and trace to be effective.
Aritana Yawalapiti, one of Brazil’s most influential indigenous leaders, has arrived at a hospital in the central city of Goiânia early on Wednesday to be treated at an intensive care unit after an arduous journey over rural roads with a dwindling supply of oxygen, Reuters reports.
The hospitalisation of Aritana, who is around 70 years old and leads the people of the Upper Xingu in central Brazil, is a powerful symbol of the threat to vulnerable indigenous communities in Brazil.
He came down with symptoms in recent days and initially declined to leave his village in a remote part of the state of Mato Grosso, according to Celso Correia Batista, who aids indigenous people. However, as his condition deteriorated and he needed oxygen to breathe, Aritana agreed to go to hospital, Batista said.
Aritana and Batista set off on a 10-hour drive to a hospital in the small city of Canarana, in Mato Grosso. After performing a lung scan, they began looking for ways to get him to an ICU, but were unable to find a doctor willing to transport him by air. As a result, they decided on a risky nine-hour car journey to Goiânia.
Batista said they traveled with four 1,000-liter oxygen cylinders during the trip – two of which were “practically empty” – to keep the chief alive until he reached the hospital. On the way, Batista said, the cylinders were replaced by full ones in a quick pit-stop. “Otherwise we would have lost him,” he said.
After arriving in Goiânia at 1.30am (BRT) on Wednesday, Aritana had to wait 30 minutes outside the hospital as he had not traveled with any documents. “His condition is serious, but he has every chance of survival,” said Batista.
In the UK, the public health official credited for her response in the aftermath of the Salisbury poisonings said the experience helped her in the early period of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Tracy Daszkiewicz said she and colleagues thought the 2018 nerve agent attack was “probably the biggest of our career”, but added: “Little did we know what 2020 had in store.”
She was recently appointed deputy (PHE) director for population health and wellbeing at Public Health England, having previously held the role of Wiltshire Council’s director of public health. Speaking to the Lords Public Services Committee on Wednesday she has said:
A huge amount was learned from the situation in 2018. The nerve agent poisonings was obviously an unprecedented incident and one that called on local, regional, and national response and all layers of the system were utilised to full effect.
This case became of huge national importance and interest very, very quickly.
France has recorded 998 more cases in the past 24 hours, according to the latest health ministry data. The number of confirmed cases now stands at 178,336, the ministry said.
The number of people in hospitals with the virus was down to 6,366 from 6,482 a day earlier, and the number in intensive care was down to 445 from 455 a day earlier, the figures showed. The number of deaths in France stood at 30,172, against 30,165 a day earlier.
The US has suffered 1,047 more deaths and confirmed another 63,028 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. The latest official figures take the respective totals to 141,677 and 3,882,167.
Egypt has extended the operating hours of cafes and restaurants from 10pm to midnight (EET) while allowing them to operate at 50% capacity starting 26 July, the cabinet has said. The operating hours of shops, including shopping centres, were also extended until 10pm, the government added.
Egypt had reduced operating hours in its initial reopening phase to limit public gatherings and curb the spread of the virus.
Indian-administered Kashmir has imposed a strict lockdown for a week as authorities warned of rising coronavirus cases, one day after cancelling a major annual Hindu pilgrimage.
India, which has recorded almost 1.2 million infections and is the world’s third-most infected nation, had significantly eased a months-long shutdown to revive its shattered economy.
But numerous states across the nation of 1.3 billion people have reimposed restrictions in recent weeks as case numbers exploded, sparking fears of overwhelmed healthcare systems.
Authorities said the Muslim-majority Himalayan valley, apart from one district, would go into lockdown until 29 July, when the restrictions would be reviewed.
“Complete lockdown in all red districts... from today evening,” the local administration’s information department tweeted.
Agriculture, construction, and the transportation of fuel and other goods is permitted under the order.
It came a day after the Amarnath Yatra - an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a cave shrine in Kashmir that draws some 300,000 participants - was cancelled for the first time in more than a century.
The pilgrimage, held for nearly two months, is usually guarded by some 40,000 government forces as well as health professionals.
But authorities said they were not able to divert such huge resources to the event with the health crisis still raging. Officials said:
The health concerns are so serious that the strain on the health system, along with the diversion in resources to the yatra, will be immense.
This would also unnecessarily put the yatris (pilgrims) at risk of catching Covid-19.
Kashmir has so far reported nearly 16,000 virus cases including 273 deaths in the region of 14 million people, local health officials said on Wednesday.
US daily coronavirus deaths surpass 1,000 for first time since June
Daily deaths due to Covid-19 on Tuesday surpassed 1,000 for the first time in the US since the start of June, as Donald Trump admitted the crisis would “get worse” before it got better.
The seven-day average for the number of deaths in the country has been slowly rising this month, according to multiple data analyses, and went past the 1,000 mark on Tuesday, taking US fatalities to more than 142,000.
At the White House’s renewed coronavirus daily press briefing late on Tuesday, the president said that the virus “will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better”, an admission in line with what public health experts have been saying for months. Trump still praised the US response to the pandemic, saying it has been “better than most”.
Public health experts such as Dr Anthony Fauci have warned for weeks that the US will see the consequences of ending shutdown orders too soon. As states along the south saw surges in new infections, experts said those states will ultimately see an uptick in deaths.
That fear is becoming a reality as deaths in those states reached almost record highs on Tuesday. Texas saw 131 deaths while Florida and Arizona both saw 134 deaths – the second-highest numbers yet seen for the states. Public health officials said that ICU beds in those states are nearly at capacity with a surge in hospitalizations amid the spikes.
Female leaders are doing a better job handling the coronavirus crisis, European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said, praising them for their honest communication and for showing they cared.
The differences in policies and communication were “quite stunning” in countries led by women, she said in an online interview with The Washington Post.
“I am going to be extremely biased. I’m not going to be a central banker at this very moment but I would say that for myself, I’ve learned that women tend to do a better job,” she said.
Lagarde, who is the ECB’s first female president, singled out German chancellor Angela Merkel for praise.
She cited Merkel’s science-based approach as an example of how “very honest, transparent” explanations on coronavirus data and infection rates helped members of the public appreciate why masks, social distancing and confinement measures were necessary.
“It became very quickly sort of a common lingua franca, common knowledge that people would understand those scientific elements,” Lagarde said.
The female leaders of Taiwan, Belgium and New Zealand had also “carried the water of bad news as well as the water of clear explanation and strong recommendations”, she added.
Germany has weathered the coronavirus crisis better than many of its European neighbours, while Taiwan and New Zealand are considered success stories in the fight against the pandemic.
By contrast, observers have noted that male, populist leaders like US president Donald Trump, Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro and British prime minister Boris Johnson have struggled to contain the outbreaks in their countries.
Former French finance minister Lagarde, 64, said leadership was about “being both responsible and accountable”.
It’s about caring as well... I think the caring dimension is something that (female leaders) managed to express well. And that was considered by viewers and voters probably as authentic.
Global coronavirus cases pass 15 million
There are now over 15 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 across the globe, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
The global tally of cases now stands at 15,000,424, with 617,832 deaths.
The US has the highest number of cases, with 3,915,780, followed by Brazil with 2,159,654 and India with 1,193,078.
Although it has considerably less confirmed cases - 297,951 - the United Kingdom still has the third highest death toll, with 45,586 fatalities.
The actual number of cases is likely to be much higher, due to lack of testing.
The World Health Organization is doing a live Q&A on the Covid-19 pandemic.
Asked about face masks, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO Covid-19 technical lead, said the agency recommends they are worn by healthcare workers, those who are displaying coronavirus symptoms, and in situations where it is not possible to physically distance, particularly indoor settings.
Dr Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO health emergencies programme, warned that schools are a microcosm of society when it comes to the spread of Covid-19.
If we have spread of the virus in our community, and that spread is intense and widespread, then that disease will spread through the school as well.
We know that children can spread the disease. Thankfully the vast majority of children don’t suffer a very severe illness, but that doesn’t mean they can’t participate in the process of transmission.
He added that in some parts of the world school is a safer place to be, in terms of nutrition and safety, so “we have to do everything possible to bring our children back to school” and that means tackling the virus.
The Italian government will approve a new spending package on Wednesday, economy minister Roberto Gualtieri said, the third major cash injection since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
The stimulus will be worth at least €20bn ($23.15bn), sources told Reuters, driving the 2020 budget deficit well above 11% of national output, compared with a 10.4% goal set in April.
The cabinet will approve the deficit increase at a meeting slated to start at 9pm (1900 GMT).
Speaking in parliament, Gualtieri declined to give details but said part of the extra spending would be used to allow people to pay taxes in installments rather than in a single payment that is currently due in September.
Thousands of South African restaurant and bar owners placed tables and chairs on the streets outside their premises on Wednesday in a nationwide protest against lockdown restrictions that prevent them from selling alcohol or trading after 9pm.
The nation’s hospitality sector is one of the hardest-hit by government restrictions imposed at the end of March to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
At the end of June, restaurants were allowed to offer sit-down services again, but at limited capacity and without serving alcohol.
But that is not enough for Llewy Mateza, owner of The Local Grill in the Parktown North suburb of Johannesburg.
Mateza said outside his 150-seat steakhouse that has not re-opened since the end of March:
I’d like the government to reinstate the sale of alcohol, which would then make my business sustainable to a certain extent. Alcohol in my restaurant accounts for 40% of my sales.
He has not laid off staff, but about 70% of them have not received any money yet from the government’s Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF), which has been paying out Covid-19 relief payments to employees who cannot work as a result of the restrictions.
The Department of Employment and Labour has said the delays in payments have been due to a lengthy vetting process and adapting its systems to cope with a ten-fold increase in benefit payments.
Mxolisi Mhlongo, a waiter at The Local Grill, said he was selling fish and vegetables from his garden to fend for his wife and three children.
Waiter Devin Moyo, who works at nearby restaurant Rockets, said he had not been able to afford the smallest things for his family.
“Just to pay the bills has become a problem. The government hasn’t done enough in helping us with the UIF so most of the families are going to bed hungry,” Moyo said, holding a placard reading £JobsSaveLives.
Wendy Alberts, chief executive officer of the Restaurant Association of South Africa, said about 400,000 jobs have been lost in the sector since the end of March, with more businesses closing their doors permanently every day.
A recent survey by Esus-Group found about 67% of restaurants were receiving less than 20% of their usual monthly turnover compared to July last year, while 90% of fine-dining restaurants had stayed shut since the lockdown began.
Yes, they are selfish. Yes, they are putting lives in danger. But do people who refuse to wear face masks deserve to be vilified? No, argues Guardian columnist Arwa Mahdawi.
Not just because public shaming is often ineffective but because they’re not the biggest villains here: the people who truly deserve our anger are the public figures and authorities – everyone from the US’s surgeon general to representatives of the World Health Organization – who, until fairly recently, told us that masks were useless if not dangerous, before doing a U-turn and insisting we all wear one.
Africa’s confirmed Covid-19 cases exceed 750,000 - Reuters tally
Total confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa have passed 750,000, a Reuters tally of government and World Health Organization data shows.
The tally showed the continent had 751,151 cases, 15,721 deaths and 407,461 recoveries. Cases crossed the 500,000 mark on 8 July.
The virus hit Africa later than other continents and transmission rates are lower than elsewhere. Still, this could translate into a prolonged, years-long outbreak, WHO said in May.
Most countries on the continent have imposed restrictions on public gatherings and international travel and introduced curfews among other steps meant to curb the spread of the virus.
Although many have also started gradually easing lockdowns to reopen hard-hit economies, governments are alert to the fact that opening up too quickly could lead to a spike in new cases.
The Reuters tally put South Africa, Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria as the leading countries with cases on the continent.
Retired accountant Tercio Galdino Lima, 66, decided to make the overalls and helmet for himself and his wife Alicea Lima, 65, to be able to walk more safely on the streets of Rio. Brazil had an average of 1,048 deaths per day from coronavirus in the last week. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has had another positive result for Covid-19 in the third test he has taken since falling ill on 7 July.
“The test carried out on the president yesterday, on the 21st, showed a positive result,” a statement from the communications ministry said.
“President Bolsonaro is still in good condition, accompanied by the presidency’s medical team,” it added.
DR Congo president Felix Tshisekedi has lifted a health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and ordered a reopening in three stages of business activities, schools and borders.
The vast country of more than 80 million people has recorded 8,534 infections, including 196 deaths, since 10 March.
Tshisekedi said the figures place the Democratic Republic of Congo as ninth worst-hit country in Africa in terms of the number of cases and 12th in terms of deaths, “putting paid to all catastrophic forecasts for our country at the start of the epidemic”.
Tshisekedi’s government proclaimed a health emergency on 24 March in which borders were closed, as well as schools, bars and restaurants.
In a televised speech late on Tuesday, the president announced an end to the emergency.
He said that from Wednesday all shops, banks, restaurants and bars would be allowed to reopen, public transport could resume and large gatherings would be permitted.
Schools and universities can reopen on 3 August, and airports, ports, borders and places of worship on 15 August.
But he warned that “the end of the state of emergency does not mean the end of the Covid-19 epidemic in our country,” reminding citizens to wear masks in public and wash their hands frequently.
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch on Wednesday accused the government of restricting freedoms on the pretext of fighting coronavirus, advising president Tshisekedi to “reverse course and stop this mounting repression”.
The rights watchdog said in a report it had documented at least 39 cases of threats and harassment linked to free speech and media freedom in half of the country’s 26 provinces.
The government banned three demonstrations this month against the choice of a new election chief.
Security forces used tear gas to disperse protestors defying the ban in several cities, and five people were killed in clashes between demonstrators and police.
“Congolese authorities have cracked down on peaceful critics, journalists, and political party members, while using state of emergency measures imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic as a pretext to curb political protests,” it said.
Ryanair plans to close its Frankfurt-Hahn base in Germany and other hubs could follow, after German pilots voted against pay cuts.
The Irish no-frills airline, which is seeking to axe 3,000 jobs due to a coronavirus-induced collapse in travel demand, revealed its plan in a memo sent on Tuesday to Germany-based pilots.
The carrier blamed their trade union VC, whose members voted in favour of rejecting its proposed 20% pay cut over four years.
“VC wrote to us... (on Monday) confirming that, following a ballot of members, this emergency agreement on cost savings and job protection was rejected since only 49.4% voted in favour,” Ryanair said in the memo obtained by AFP on Wednesday.
It added:
The VC (has) voted for job cuts and base closures when they could have preserved all jobs.
We must move on with alternative measures to deliver cost savings, which regrettably will mean base closures and dismissals.
Ryanair added that its Frankfurt-Hahn hub, some 120km (75 miles) west of Germany’s financial capital, would close with effect from 1 November, but did not specify the number of job losses.
The carrier also warned its bases in Berlin Tegel and Duesseldorf were likely to be closed before winter.
In reaction, the VC union said the proposed cutbacks would harm members and offer inadequate job security - and it urged fresh talks.
“We are not giving up hope. The employer would be well advised to quickly get back to the negotiating table now,” VC added in a statement.
Earlier this month, Ryanair’s British pilots agreed 20% pay cuts to save 260 jobs the airline had wanted to axe.
No final decision has been made on whether the G20 leaders summit will be physical or virtual, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister said, adding the the matter is still being considered.
Saudi Arabia is the host of this year’s annual gathering of representatives of the world’s largest economies, scheduled for November.
The main association of European airlines has called on the EU to extend the suspension of its “use-it-or-lose-it” rules governing slots at airports through the slow winter season, saying the return of demand is uncertain.
In March, the EU formally shelved until 24 October the requirement that airlines use 80% of their slots - take-off and landing authorisations - or lose them the following year, as coronavirus lockdowns meant many flights were cancelled.
Although airlines resumed some flights as EU nations relaxed most internal travel rules, the A4E airline association said there still aren’t enough people who want to fly.
“The number of slots we have is too many based on the demand,” said Ben Smith, chairman of A4E and the head of Air France-KLM.
Airports have been unhappy that some airlines are cancelling flights at the last minute, preventing airports from allocating slots to other carriers.
At least one European airline is believed to want the suspension to end in the hope of getting more slots.
Smith said “the reason that we’re not operating is not to block slots. TThe reason we’re not operating is because we don’t have access to many markets (and) there’s no demand.”
European airlines are expected to see their revenue fall by more than half this year and rack up losses of €19bn ($22bn) due to the coronavirus pandemic and the travel restrictions many nations have imposed. Smith said:
This winter will definitely be very challenging. It’s extremely important to get assistance.
He also called for a review of the EU regulation on compensating passengers whose flights are cancelled or severely delayed.
The costs to airlines for compensating passengers more than tripled between 2011 and 2018 to €5.3bn.
On 17 July India hit a million coronavirus cases, the third-highest total in the world, with no sign yet of the infection curve flattening as new cases emerge in rural areas. More than 25,000 people have died nationally. Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images
Swedish health officials have said another 3,000 deaths from Covid-19 are likely in the country.
The projection comes from one of three potential scenarios presented in a report from the country’s Public Health Agency on Tuesday.
In the worst scenario, where Covid-19 was expected to follow a traditional pandemic trajectory, there could be over 4,400 more virus-related deaths.
That would nearly double the 5,646 deaths, out of 78,166 confirmed cases, so far recorded since the start of the pandemic.
However, they said a more likely scenario would see clusters of new cases around the country which would then quickly subside.
That is a scenario “we’ve seen now in different parts of the world, and which seems like something that Covid-19 is creating more than most other diseases,” state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said.
In the report the agency noted that this was a possible scenario where “infectivity increases quickly due to people, for example, socialising more frequently,” but would then decrease “when people become aware of the outbreak and follow recommendations on distancing.”
The added death toll from this scenario was estimated at nearly 3,250.
Despite the grim projections, the Public Health Agency said there were positive signs of the epidemic slowing down.
“In Sweden, the positive trend with a fairly quick decline in cases continues,” Tegnell said, noting that especially serious cases in need of intensive care were down to a handful a day.
In the mildest scenario presented, in which the spread of the virus follows current trends, just over 1,100 additional deaths were expected.
Unlike most European nations, Sweden never imposed a lockdown and made headlines for having one of the highest per capita death tolls in the world.
It has kept schools for under-16s open and has not shuttered cafes, bars, restaurants and most businesses. Masks have been recommended only for healthcare personnel.
Swedish officials have argued that lockdowns only work temporarily and that drastic short-term measures are too ineffective to justify their impact.
Australia to post biggest budget deficit since second world war
The government that went to the last federal election declaring it was “back in black” will on Thursday unveil the largest budget deficit since the second world war, reflecting the substantial fiscal support rolled out during the Covid-19 pandemic and a deterioration in revenue because of a contraction in activity.
The day after Australia recorded its worst day of the pandemic, the Morrison government will unveil new economic forecasts revealing that the lockdown in Victoria in response to the second wave of infections – a lockdown that Daniel Andrews says could be extended – will cost the national economy $3.3bn, and dampen economic growth in the September quarter.
The Treasury update will map out the scope of the economic shock accompanying the pandemic. It will show company tax receipts down by more than $25bn over the past financial year and the current one, with revenue declining by $13.2bn in 2019-20 and $12.1bn in 2020-21.
Market analysts believe the deficit for the current financial year could be north of $200bn.
As the coronavirus spreads around the world, there are concerns that it will mutate into a form that is more transmissible, more dangerous or both, potentially making the global health crisis even worse.
What do we know about the way the virus is evolving?
The US federal government has signed a contract with Pfizer for 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccine, once it is approved.
The health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, said on Fox News:
We just signed a contract with global pharmaceutical leader Pfizer to produce 100 million doses of vaccine starting in December of this year with an option to buy a half a billion doses.
Now those would of course have to be safe and effective.
Azar said that out of the five vaccine candidates that “prioritise” the United States, three had had good results in the first phase of testing.
Those include the Pfizer drug, as well as vaccines being developed by Moderna and Astrazeneca.
“It’s a very serious situation that we’re facing now but we have tools to deal with it,” Azar said.
Updated
Police have seized 17,000 fake Covid-19 testing kits discovered in raids against illicit food and drink products across dozens of countries.
Officials seized $40m (€34.5m) worth of fake or substandard products in 77 countries, and arrested 407 people in the operation, carried out from December 2019 to June 2020, Interpol said.
The agency’s secretary general, Jurgen Stock, said:
As countries around the world continue their efforts to contain Covid-19, the criminal networks distributing these potentially dangerous products show only their determination to make a profit.
Besides the fake Covid-19 tests, the raids uncovered disinfectants and even a shipment of seafood in South Africa, originating from Asia, that was falsely declared as personal protective equipment.
“Other illicit products recovered included cosmetics, footwear, clothing, handbags, car parts, electronics, tobacco and medicines, worth an estimated $3.1 million,” Interpol said.
It was the agency’s ninth year of coordinated Operation OPSON raids against counterfeit or substandard food and drink, which regularly seize thousands of tons of fake and potentially harmful products.
Hello everyone, my colleague Lexy Topping has been called away on another story so I’ll be taking the reins on the blog for the next few hours.
Feel free to get in touch with any story suggestions, or to share your thoughts and experiences.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
In the US democratic candidate Joe Biden is leading President Donald Trump by 8 percentage points in support among registered voters, as Trump’s handling of the coronavirus crisis continues to hit his ratings, Reuters reports:
Biden, who was vice president under Barack Obama, appears to have a significant advantage among voters who are undecided, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll.
The July 15-21 poll found that 46% of registered voters said they would back Biden in the November 3 election, while 38% would vote for Republican Trump. The remaining 16% are either undecided, plan to support a third-party candidate or may not vote.
Both Biden and Trump campaigns have focused much of their time on reaching out to this third group of potentially persuadable voters, which could swing a close election in either direction.
Reuters/Ipsos polling in 2016 found that support was evenly split that summer between Trump and then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton among registered voters who had not backed a major party candidate. On Election Day, Trump won a majority of voters who said they decided in the final week.
This year, the poll found that 61% of undecided or third-party registered voters said they would support Biden if they had to choose, while 39% would vote for Trump.
Seventy percent of undecided or third-party registered voters say they disapprove of Trump’s performance in office and the same number said they think the country is headed on the wrong track. And 62% said they thought the U.S. economy was headed in the wrong direction.
This group also appears to be deeply concerned about coronavirus, which has killed more than 141,000 Americans and forced millions out of work as businesses closed in an effort to slow the spread of the virus.
About 8 in 10 said they were personally concerned about the spread of the virus. When asked about the most important factor driving their decision to vote, 34% - a plurality - said they were looking for a candidate who has “a robust plan to help the nation recover.”
Another 24% said they were looking for someone who can “restore trust in American government” and 12% said they wanted a candidate who is “strong on healthcare.”
Registered voters have consistently ranked Biden as the better candidate when it comes to all three.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll also showed that only 38% of the public supports Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, including 20% of undecided or third-party registered voters.
Trump, who played down the crisis and did not appear publicly in a mask until July 12, pushed to reopen businesses well before health experts said it was safe.
Updated
Hello, this is Lexy Topping taking over the live blog from my excellent colleague Nazia Parveen.
This may not be the top of most people’s concerns, but perhaps we should spare a thought for the organisers of Tokyo 2020 and those - like me! - who were meant to be there now covering sport and eating sushi (ok, sure, I don’t need any sympathy).
Organisers have been forced to cancel the 2020 Tokyo Games after years of work and billions of dollars of investment, and now they have an agonising wait to see if the event can go ahead next year with any semblance of normality.
The organising committee boss Toshiro Muto is trying to keep the faith that the postponed event will actually take place in the summer of 2021. He said:
It is rather difficult for us to expect that the coronavirus pandemic is contained.
But if we can deliver the Games in Tokyo with coronavirus, Tokyo can be the role model for the next Olympic Games or other various international events.
On Wednesday, Japan kicked off a national travel campaign called “Go To Travel”, aimed at reviving its hard-hit tourism industry. The country is offering subsidies of up to 50% on some trips, despite a recent jump in new coronavirus cases. Perhaps inevitably, some local media dubbed it “Go To Trouble”.
The Spanish government has urged “respect” for the coronavirus as the country moves to contain 224 active outbreaks, most of them in the northeastern regions of Catalonia and Aragón.
Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, the health minister, Salvador Illa, said that people needed to remain vigilant, adding that early detection and action remained vital. He said:
We don’t need to be afraid of the virus, but we need to make sure we don’t lose our respect for it.
He said that most of the cases were linked to seasonal agricultural workers, parties, and family events.
The tourism minister, Reyes Maroto, said the situation in Catalonia was being brought under control and said she hoped there would be no reason for France to close the border. On Sunday, the French prime minister, Jean Catex refused to rule out the move.
On Wednesday morning Maroto told an event organised by Europa Press news agency:
With the latest data we have in Aragon and Catalonia, we’re a bit more optimistic. Catalonia has already reduced the number of infections over the last three days.
Let’s hope that with this better data we don’t have to close a border that for us is very important for mobility with our European partners.
Barcelona city council has imposed limits on the number of people allowed onto the Catalan capital’s beaches after crowds flocked to the seaside at the weekend despite calls to stay home to halt the local spike in infections.
The wealthy northeastern region, which borders France, has been at the heart of a rebound in coronavirus cases since Spain lifted a nationwide lockdown one month ago, with almost 7,000 new cases, nearly half of those nationwide in the last 14 days, health ministry data shows.
Catalonia registered 63 new cases on Tuesday, 70 on Monday and 994 on Sunday, down from a peak of 1,226 on Saturday.
On Wednesday, Madrid’s regional government announced that it had covered the costs of the burials of 59 people whose bodies were never claimed after they died from the virus in hospitals and care homes in and around the capital.
The regional minister for Justice, Interior and victims, Enrique López, said €134,000 had been spent on burials “to give these people their dignity”.
Rather than bury them in a common grave, added López, “they have been buried individually and properly identified”.
The bodies of the 59 people will remain in burial niches in a cemetery in the south of Madrid for 10 years, hopefully giving any relatives time to come forward and claim the remains so they can be buried elsewhere in the cemetery.
Updated
A poll of 7000 households in Germany concludes that working from home during the pandemic has been a positive experience for many employees, the majority of whom claimed it had reduced their stress levels, allowed more time for family life and led to greater productivity.
More than three-quarters of those questioned who had previously not worked regularly from home said they hoped to be able to do so in future.
Commissioned by health insurer DAK and carried out by the respected research institutes IGES and FORSA before and during the pandemic, the poll showed that whilst 21 per cent of workers felt stressed before the pandemic - due to commuting and combining work and family life - that figure had fallen to 15 per cent during the pandemic.
The proportion of workers who said they were never or only occasionally stressed rose from 48 per cent to 57 per cent. Of those who are now regularly working from home, 56 per cent said they were more productive than when working in the office, with two-thirds claiming they could combine job and family better.
According to the study, almost 77 per cent of those questioned who had previously not worked from home regularly, said they wanted to continue doing so in the future.
However almost half of those questioned said they missed the clear demarcation between work and home life, with that number increasing to 52 per cent amongst 18 to 29 year olds, with three-quarters saying they missed the direct contact with their colleagues.
DAK, the health insurer, said the results should be taken seriously by employers, without losing sight of the negative aspects of home office, such as the lack of worker protection and loneliness, particularly for those who live alone.
India has cancelled a historic Hindu pilgrimage to a holy cave high in the snow-capped mountains of contested Kashmir for the first time, as cases of the novel coronavirus continued to rise on Wednesday.
There were 37,724 new cases reported in the past 24 hours, according to federal health data released on Wednesday. India has reported almost 1.2million cases overall, behind only the United States and Brazil.
Organisers of the Amarnath Yatra, where saffron-clad Hindu ascetics walk 46 km (28 miles) to the cave across glaciers and waterlogged trails, said a “very sharp” spike in coronavirus cases had forced the cancellation.
“The health concerns are so serious that the strain on the health system, along with the diversion in resources to the Yatra, will be immense,” said a statement by the organising committee released late on Tuesday.
A strict lockdown was reimposed in Kashmir- also claimed by India’s arch rival Pakistan- on 12 July after a major spike in cases and deaths.
Shops and businesses are shut, and in most parts of the main city of Srinagar roads are sealed and people are not allowed to leave their homes.
The mountain cave contains an ice stalagmite that is considered a physical manifestation of Hindu god Lord Shiva. It is the first time the pilgrimage has been cancelled since the cave was discovered by a farmer in the 19th century.
Spain’s Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said on Wednesday a resurgence in coronavirus cases in Catalonia was coming under control and she hoped there would be no need for France to close the border.
Tourism accounts for about 12% of Spain’s economic output. With the pandemic wreaking havoc on the summer season ministers in Madrid have voiced concern after French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Sunday that he was not ruling out closing the border.
“With the latest data we have in Aragon and Catalonia we are a bit more optimistic. Catalonia has already reduced the number of infections over the last three days,” Maroto told an event organised by Europa Press news agency.
“Let’s hope that with this better data we don’t have to close a border that for us is very important for mobility with our European partners.”
Catalonia’s regional capital Barcelona has cut the number of people allowed onto the city’s beaches after crowds flocked to the seaside at the weekend despite advice to stay home to curb a local rise in Covid-19 infections.
The wealthy northeastern region, which borders France, has been at the heart of a rebound in coronavirus cases since Spain lifted a nationwide lockdown one month ago, with almost 7,000 new cases, nearly half of those nationwide in the last 14 days, Health Ministry data shows.
Health Minister Salvador Illa told parliament that the the situation in Catalonia and Aragon was worrying: “We shouldn’t be afraid of the virus but we also shouldn’t lose respect for it,” he said.
WHO: worrying infection trends in southern Europe and Balkan region
Worrying trends of coronavirus infection are emerging in southern Europe and in the Balkan region, Mike Ryan, head of the World Health Organization’s emergencies programme, said on Wednesday.
“Obviously the Americas is clearly still the major hot spot, North, Central and South America, but we have disease beginning to accelerate in Africa,” Ryan told the Newstalk radio station in his native Ireland.
He added: “Also, even in Europe, while certainly in western Europe the disease has come under control, we still have some worrying trends in southern Europe and the Balkans so we’re not out of the woods just yet in the European environment. It requires sustained vigilance.”
Updated
The Irish government is facing accusations of sowing confusion after unveiling a “green list” of countries deemed relatively safe to travel to and from.
The list was published at midnight amid splits in the coalition government and days of conflicting signals over whether it should be published.
The 15 countries - Malta, Finland, Norway, Italy, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus, Slovakia, Greece, Greenland, Gibraltar, Monaco and San Marino – have a similar or lower level of Covid-19 than Ireland.
People travelling from those countries will not have to quarantine for 14 days – a restriction that continues for arrivals from Britain, the US and elsewhere.
However the government is still urging people to avoid all international travel to minimise risks of importing infection. Critics say the green list contradicts that message and will be confused with a green light.
Simon Coveney, the foreign minister, told RTE the ideas was to give travel advice to the 50,000 people who leave Ireland each week. “We would rather they were not, but they are.” The list will be reviewed every fortnight.
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney arrives at Dublin Castle for a cabinet meeting. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA
On Tuesday Leo Varadkar, the tánaiste (deputy prime minister) appeared to side with opposition parties when he said if there was no clear message around the policy it would be better to publish no list.
In the Irish Times the writer Miriam Lord portrayed Varadkar and the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, as bumbling travel agents. “Motto: we’ll send you round the bend.”
Tokyo’s governor urged residents of the Japanese capital to stay at home during an upcoming four-day holiday weekend, as the number of new local coronavirus cases rose.
The city is on its highest coronavirus alert level, with experts warning infections appear to be spreading rapidly and widely.
“The infections are spreading not only among young people but also among middle-aged and older people,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said during a meeting with infectious disease experts.
“I’d like to ask (Tokyo residents) to refrain from going out as much as possible, especially elderly people and those with pre-existing conditions,” she said ahead of the holiday weekend.
Tokyo hit a new daily record of 293 cases last week, and the figure has stayed above 200 in recent days.
Koike said the city was seeing infections at restaurants and theatres, not just nightlife areas as in previous weeks. Clusters have also been reported at workplaces and schools.
Japan has had just over 26,300 cases and close to 1,000 deaths since the disease was first detected in the country.
The figure is low compared with countries worst hit by the pandemic, but Japanese experts said the number of patients in serious condition was gradually increasing and warned medical workers were exhausted by growing workloads and demoralised by low pay.
The number of deaths from Covid-19 in Afghanistan rose by 4 from the previous day to stand at 1,190 on Wednesday amid a surge in Polio cases.
In its latest update, the health ministry said the number of people who tested positive for the virus had reached 35,727, an increase of 112 on the day before.
The war-torn country, which has admitted it has a lack of testing capacity, has tested 84,579 suspected patients since the outbreak began.
Akmal Samsour, health ministry spokesman said that the number of patients with coronavirus have decreased in recent weeks.
But Samsour added that in the past few weeks, the trend of Covid-19 transmission in Herat, Badghis and Bamyan provinces, had been higher than in other places.
Local officials in Herat have already warned of a second wave of the virus in the province. They also said that the second wave of the virus has already started in some areas and it is threatening the lives of thousands of people.
The spokesman added that in addition of coronavirus, the country’s is to deal with two more viruses of polio and CCHF or Crimean-Congo Haemorrhagic Fever.
“We have had 34 new Polio cases so far this year and it’s a surge”, Samour said.
“The reason is that we didn’t have a door to door vaccination campaign in last three months as the ministry is concerned that the volunteers who do the vaccine may help the virus to spread.”
The number of active coronavirus infections topped 5,000 in the Czech Republic for the first time after labs reported the highest daily rise in nearly a month, the health ministry said on Wednesday.
Authorities had reported 212 new cases by Tuesday night, bringing the total number of active cases to 5,046. Total cases including those who have recovered or died reached 14,324.
The central European country of 10.7 million has reported 360 deaths from the disease caused by the coronavirus, far fewer than many western European nations.
But it has seen infection numbers creeping up, first from an outbreak at a mine in north-eastern Moravia-Silesia region.
Since lifting a strict nationwide lockdown imposed in March, the authorities have pledged to avoid future countrywide measures.
Last Friday, authorities tightened restrictions in the northeast of the country, reinstating compulsory face coverings, limiting restaurant opening hours and ordering checks on cross-border commuters.
Pakistanis with coronavirus are risking their lives and navigating a shady black market to get blood plasma transfusions, despite scant medical proof about the remedy’s effectiveness.
Convalescent plasma treatment, where the antibody-rich part of the blood from a recovered patient is transfused to a coronavirus sufferer, is growing in popularity across the country amid widely circulating claims of success on social media.
Like some other nations, Pakistan is conducting medical trials on the treatment, which has shown promising signs but is far from proven.
Syed said the social media group had helped connect more than 750 people to blood donors in the hope of receiving convalescent plasma treatment. Photograph: Arif Ali/AFP/Getty Images
But with lengthy wait times and uncertain access, people are turning to the black market and private clinics, where there are no guarantees about the safety or origin of the blood product.
“It’s all born out of desperation because everyone wants to believe there is an answer to this (coronavirus) question,” Fareeha Irfan, a public health specialist said.
“It is easy to exploit the people who are not very well versed in what’s going on in the scientific world. It is very easy to coerce them.”
Pakistan has declared about 260,000 cases of coronavirus and some 5,500 deaths. With low testing rates, the true figure is thought to be considerably higher.
The Pakistan Society of Haematology said plasma hype had led the public - and even some health professionals - to believe the therapy was standard treatment for the virus.
“Use of convalescent plasma can sometimes lead to life-threatening transfusion reactions and transmissions of infections,” the society said.
While plasma therapy is so far unproven in fighting coronavirus, small studies have found it successful against other infectious diseases including Ebola and SARS.
The Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, has lifted a health emergency over the coronavirus outbreak and ordered the reopening of businesses, schools and borders.
The vast country of more than 80 million people has recorded 8,534 infections including 196 deaths since 10 March.
Tshisekedi said the figures place the Democratic Republic of Congo as ninth worst-hit country in Africa in terms of the number of cases and 12th in terms of deaths, “putting paid to all catastrophic forecasts for our country at the start of the epidemic”.
Tshisekedi’s government proclaimed a health emergency on 24 March in which borders were closed, as well as schools, bars and restaurants.
In a televised speech late on Tuesday, the president announced an end to the emergency. He said that from Wednesday all shops, banks, restaurants and bars would be allowed to reopen, public transport can resume and large gatherings are permitted.
But he warned that “the end of the state of emergency does not mean the end of the Covid-19 epidemic in our country”, reminding citizens to wear masks in public and wash their hands frequently.
Updated
Hong Kong will expand strict new social distancing measures from midnight on Wednesday, mandating face masks in all indoor public areas including malls and markets, health secretary Sophia Chan said.
The Asian financial hub tightened social distancing measures in July after a spike of locally transmitted cases and as authorities warned about a third wave of infections.
“This is the most critical time for Hong Kong. We ask citizens to be patient and stay at home as much as possible,” Chan said.
A spike in recent cases was mostly due to people not wearing masks, she added. The new measures would be in place for two weeks.
The closure of 12 types of venues including gyms and entertainment centres would continue until 28 July, as would a ban on dining in restaurants after 6pm.
Since late January more than 2,000 people have been infected in Hong Kong, 14 of whom have died.
Updated
Lebanon’s hospitals, long considered among the best in the Middle East, are cracking under the country’s financial crisis, struggling to pay staff, keep equipment running or even stay open amid a surge in coronavirus cases.
Private hospitals, the engine of the health system, warn they may have to shut down.
Meanwhile, chronically underfunded public hospitals, which have led the fight against the virus, fear they will be overrun.
Across the country, hospitals and doctors are reporting shortages in vital medical supplies such as anesthesia drugs and sutures. With power cuts that run through most of the day, they pour money into fuel for generators, and many are turning away non-critical cases to conserve resources.
“The situation is really catastrophic, and we expect a total collapse if the government doesnt come up with a rescue plan,” said Selim Abi Saleh, the head of the physicians’ union in northern Lebanon, one of the country’s poorest and most populated regions.
Last week, one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious university hospitals, the American University Medical Center, laid off hundreds of its staff last week citing the disastrous state of the economy.
So far Lebanon has kept a handle on its pandemic outbreak, through strong lockdowns, aggressive testing and a quick response, largely by public hospitals. The country has reported fewer than 3,000 infections and 41 deaths.
But with cases rising, many in the field fear the health sector can’t hold up under a surge and a financial crisis worsening every day.
Updated
Morning, I will be updating the blog for the next few hours. As ever, please send me any tips, stories or items which you feel we should be covering. My email is nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/NParveenG to send me a DM
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thanks for following along. My colleague Nazia Parveen will be taking you through the next few hours of pandemic news.
In the meantime:
Global report: nearly a quarter of people in Delhi have had coronavirus, study finds
Almost a quarter of people in the Indian capital of Delhi have been infected with the coronavirus, according to scientists, raising fears there could be many more cases in the country of 1.3 billion people.
In the US, Donald Trump adopted a notably different stance on the outbreak when he gave his first media briefing on the virus for months on Tuesday. Trump, who has previously boasted that his government is doing a “great job” in fighting the outbreak, admitted that the pandemic would get worse before it got better.
Australia has recorded its biggest ever daily increase in new cases as the country’s second wave of coronavirus continues to mount:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- Global cases passed 14.9m. The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 14.9m on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data.Known coronavirus deaths number 615,754.
- Trump admits pandemic will ‘get worse’ at first Covid-19 briefing in months. Donald Trump has admitted that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to “get worse before it gets better” at his first press briefing devoted to the issue since April. The US president returned to the White House podium urging people to wear face masks and promising his administration was working on a “strategy”.
- In Australia, the state of Victoria reported the highest-ever one-day new case total for an Australian state, with 484 in a single day. The rise is higher than Australia’s previous record one-day total, which means Wednesday also marked Australia’s highest cases over the course of the pandemic so far.
- California cases set to overtake New York’s. California on Tuesday became the second US state after New York to report more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases, according to a Reuters tally of county data. Reuters reports that most populous US state has a total of 400,166 Covid-19 cases. New York currently has over 412,800 total cases and is adding on average 700 new cases a day in July. In California there is an average of 8,300 new cases a day.
- Zimbabwe introduces curfew. Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday imposed a curfew and reinstated strict measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus following a spike in cases in recent weeks. The number of cases recorded in the southern African country, whose health system has been tottering from years of neglect, rose by nearly a third over the past week to a total 1,713 cases. The number of deaths climbed from 18 to 26.
- China reported 14 new coronavirus cases in the mainland, up from 11 cases a day earlier, the health commission said on Wednesday. Of the new infections, nine were in the far western region of Xinjiang, according to a statement by the National Health Commission. The other five were imported cases.
- Brazil has confirmed 41,008 more cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,367 related deaths, the country’s health ministry has said. Brazil has registered nearly 2.2m cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 81,487, according to ministry data.
- The euro hit an 18-month high and stock markets gained groundafter the EU agreed a €750bn pandemic recovery fund, in a deal struck hot on the heels of reports that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready within months.After more than four days of tortuous negotiation, the EU’s 27 leaders resolved to issue debt jointly, with the proceeds to be disbursed to countries wrestling with an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
- The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19. The data would help authorities track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
Hi, Helen Sullivan here. A reminder that you can send tips, suggestions, questions and recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix to me on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday it is facing a serious funding gap to battle the new outbreak of Ebola in remote corners of northern Congo amid the global Covid-19 pandemic, AP reports.
The $1.75 million raised so far will only last for a few more weeks, the WHO warned, adding that the response effort is particularly expensive because of how difficult it is to get health teams and supplies into the densely forested area.
Already there have been 24 deaths since the outbreak was declared on 1 June. The emergence of Ebola in Congo’s northern Equateur province came just as the world’s second deadliest Ebola outbreak was nearing its end.
Global cases pass 14.9m
The number of coronavirus cases worldwide passed 14.9m on Wednesday, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, which relies on official government data.
Known coronavirus deaths number 615,754.
The ten worst-affected countries in terms of number of cases are:
- US: 3,899,148
- Brazil: 2,159,654
- India: 1,155,354
- Russia: 782,040
- South Africa: 381,798
- Peru: 362,087
- Mexico: 356,255
- Chile: 334,683
- United Kingdom: 297,389
- Iran: 278,827
The Nobel Foundation, which manages the Nobel Prizes, on Tuesday cancelled its traditional December banquet because of the coronavirus pandemic and said the award ceremonies would be held in “new forms”, AFP reports.
This is the first time since 1956 that the lavish banquet has been cancelled, according to the foundation. The event traditionally marks the end of the so-called Nobel Week, when the year’s prize-winners are invited to Swedish capital Stockholm for talks and the award ceremony.
Traditionally, the prize-winners join the Swedish royal family and some 1,300 guests for the banquet at Stockholm’s City Hall after the award ceremony - held on December 10, the anniversary of the death of the prizes’ founder Alfred Nobel.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 454 to 202,799, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by five to 9,095, the tally showed.
Here is the full story on Victoria, which has recorded 484 new Covid-19 infections, more than Australia’s previous national high. The state premier says nine in 10 symptomatic residents aren’t isolating correctly.
In the peak of the first wave, on 28 March, the Australia-wide total was 469 cases reported in a single day.
Two Victorian men in their 90s also passed away on Tuesday night taking the state’s death toll to 44. Both men were residents in aged care homes.
Of Wednesday’s cases, 97 are connected to known outbreaks and 387 are under investigation. The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, suggested the total may be reduced overnight as duplicates are removed:
A government-sponsored campaign to revive domestic tourism in Japan has begun in disarray amid fears it could cause a coronavirus “disaster”.
The “Go To” campaign was supposed to help kick start the world’s third-biggest economy, which has seen the number of overseas visitors plummet by 99.9% in recent months because of the pandemic.
But days before the campaign’s launch, the government excluded people taking holidays in Tokyo, where infections have surged since the nationwide state of emergency was lifted in late May. The city announced 237 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the capital’s tally to almost 10,000 – about half Japan’s total:
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is holding a press conference currently, where he has said he will not be introducing further restrictions in response to the case rise.
Australia reports record one-day case rise
The record one-day case rise in Victoria, of 484 cases in a single day, is also higher than the biggest national daily case total recorded to date in Australia, my colleague Calla Wahlquist has pointed out on the Australia live blog.
The national peak was on 28 March, when 469 cases were recorded nationally.
This also means Australia has recorded its highest-one day national case total.
So far today, 501 cases have been confirmed combined for the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.
Updated
Australian state of Victoria reports record-one day case rise
In Australia, the state of Victoria, which is struggling to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has seen three-digit daily case rises for more than a fortnight, has reported the highest-ever one-day new case total for an Australian state, with 484 in a single day.
The previous record, also set by Victoria on Friday last week, was 428 cases.
As part of the state’s response to the outbreak, Melbourne is in week two of a six-week stage three lockdown. Residents of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are also required to wear face coverings while in public.
Updated
More than one in five people in Delhi have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a study released Tuesday, indicating that most cases in the Indian capital region have gone undetected, Reuters reports.
The National Centre for Disease Control tested 21,387 people selected randomly across Delhi, the state that includes New Delhi, and found that 23.48% had antibodies to the virus. Adjusting for false positives and negatives, it estimated that 22.86% of the population had been infected by the virus, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, who heads the institute, said in a news conference Tuesday.
Delhi, with a population of 29 million, has officially reported 123,747 cases and 3,663 deaths. The study, however, indicates more than 6.6 million likely cases, with most not identified or tested.
With more than 1.1 million reported cases, India has the third-highest confirmed caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.
Panama will further reopen its economy next week, adding some sectors in the provinces of Los Santos, Herrera and Cocle that have a low number of novel coronavirus cases, a health official said on Tuesday.
The Central American country had already started reopening its economy in May but halted it after the number of cases rose.
Health Minister Luis Sucre told a news conference that private construction and car sales companies would be allowed to resume business activity as would those providing professional and administrative services.
The isthmus nation, separated by its famous shipping canal and sought out for its offshore banking services, implemented strict measures to curb the spread of the pandemic, including closing its borders.
So far, it has registered 55,153 coronavirus cases and 1,159 deaths.
More than 500 women at a federal medical prison in Texas have tested positive for the coronavirus, in one of the largest confirmed outbreaks at a federal prison, the Bureau of Prisons said.
AP reports the number of confirmed cases at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth jumped to 510 on Tuesday, just two days after the Bureau of Prisons reported that 200 women there had tested positive for Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Only the federal prison in Seagoville, also located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had more infected inmates, with 1,156 cases as of Tuesday.
Three weeks ago, the prison had reported only three confirmed cases of the virus among inmates. One prisoner, Andrea Circle Bear, died in April. On July 12, 69-year-old Sandra Kincaid became the second woman to die there from the virus. The third, 51-year-old Teresa Ely, died Monday.
FMC-Carswell holds female inmates with medical and mental health issues. It currently has 1,357 prisoners. Since April, many inmates have told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram that they were concerned the virus could spread through the prison.
Japan’s health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of Covid-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalised patients, Reuters reports.
The ministry included dexamethasone as an option for treatment along with Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir in a recent revision to its handbook. The revision was widely reported by Japanese media on Wednesday and was viewed by Reuters.
Shares of Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co, among those that produce the drug, gained as much as 6.5% in early trade.
In results announced last month, a trial by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone as the first drug to save lives of Covid-19 patients in what scientists said was a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.
The full results of the large randomised clinical trial released last Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed the benefits for people with advanced or moderate disease.
Updated
China reports 14 new cases including nine from Xinjiang
China reported 14 new coronavirus cases in the mainland for July 21, up from 11 cases a day earlier, the health commission said on Wednesday.
Of the new infections, nine were in the far western region of Xinjiang, according to a statement by the National Health Commission. The other five were imported cases.
China reported 22 new asymptomatic patients, up from six a day earlier.
As of Tuesday, mainland China had 83,707 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The Covid-19 death toll remained at 4,634.
AP has this dire report on Bolivia:
A special police unit collected 420 bodies over the preceding five days in two Bolivian cities, and 80% to 90% of the deceased were thought to have succumbed to Covid-19, authorities said Tuesday.
Colonel Ivan Rojas, director of the special crime-fighting force, said his officers recovered the bodies from streets, vehicles and homes in the capital, La Paz, and in Bolivia’s biggest city, Santa Cruz.
Bolivia’s Institute of Forensic Investigations said that nationally from 1 April through Sunday, its workers had recovered 3,016 bodies of people in possible Covid-19 cases.
Andrés Flores, director of the agency, said the Santa Cruz department which includes the city of that name, had the highest number of deaths, followed by Cochabamba.
As of Tuesday, officials said Bolivia has recorded 60,991 confirmed coronavirus infections and 2,218 deaths from Covid-19.
Earlier in the day, a scientific committee advising the Bolivian government proposed that the presidential election scheduled for 6 September be postponed because of the pandemic. Bolivia is trying to resolve the political crisis that erupted last November when street protests over allegations of election fraud led President Evo Morales to resign after nearly 14 years in power.
The Australian state of New South Wales has reported 16 new coronavirus cases, most of which are from known or previously identified clusters.
16 new cases of #COVID19 have been diagnosed in NSW between 8pm on 20 July and 8pm on 21 July.
— NSW Health (@NSWHealth) July 22, 2020
For the latest list of COVID-19 locations, visit: https://t.co/6PUOQ3J3tO pic.twitter.com/hXBMSqnXKP
In a press conference, state premier Gladys Berejiklian said the next few weeks will be “the most critical since March,” and said “we are not out of the woods by any stretch.”
The state had “some level of anxiety” about community transmission, she said.
Updated
Two Chinese nationals have been indicted for seeking to steal Covid-19 vaccine research and hacking hundreds of companies in the US and abroad, including defence contractors, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.
Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, also targeted human rights activists in the US, China and Hong Kong, assistant attorney general John Demers alleged.
Li and Dong, who are believed to be in China, acted in some instances “for their own personal gain” and in others for the benefit of China’s Ministry of State Security, Demers said:
International airlines flying into Australia are having to bump passengers, often with little notice, in order to meet strict daily passenger caps set for airports still accepting flights from overseas.
The passenger limits introduced to alleviate pressure on quarantine facilities in Australia have meant airports like Brisbane can only accept 70 passengers per day, while services bringing Australians back to Sydney are limited to as few as 30 travellers per flight.
While the passenger caps have seen a surge in the cost of airfares into Australia – the cost of a one-way flight from Doha to Sydney on Qatar Airways is $3,729 in economy, a class of seat booked out until 9 August – some economy travellers who are concerned they will be bumped due to their cheaper seats are upgrading to business class tickets.
Zimbabwe introduces curfew
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday imposed a curfew and reinstated strict measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus following a spike in cases in recent weeks, AFP reports.
The number of cases recorded in the southern African country, whose health system has been tottering from years of neglect, rose by nearly a third over the past week to a total 1,713 cases. The number of deaths climbed from 18 to 26.
Starting Wednesday, security forces will enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew between 6pm and 6am. Mnangagwa said “all non-working” people will be required to stay at home and may only go out to buy groceries and seek health care. Travel between cities and gatherings of more than 50 people for social, religious and political reasons remained banned.
Mnangagwa initially imposed a 21-day lockdown on March 30, banning large gatherings and ordering most businesses to close except food shops in a move aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. In May he relaxed the restrictions, allowing large corporations to open but under strict conditions to ensure the safety of their staff and customers.
The latest measures effectively ban a protest organised by opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume against state corruption and worsening economic troubles. The nationwide protests had been slated for 31 July.
Police arrested Ngarivhume along with prominent investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Hopewell Chin’ono. Chin’ono had lately been writing about alleged corruption involving funds earmarked for anti-coronavirus supplies in what was dubbed “Covidgate”. They were both charged with incitement to commit public violence.
Trump admits pandemic will 'get worse' at first Covid-19 briefing in months
Donald Trump has admitted that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to “get worse before it gets better” at his first press briefing devoted to the issue since April.
Facing dire poll numbers, surging cases and sharp criticism for lack of leadership, the US president returned to the White House podium attempting to show more discipline in both style and substance.
In several notable reversals, he urged people to wear face masks, promised his administration was working on a “strategy” and wrapped up in less than half an hour, avoiding his digressions in past briefings that culminated in a proposal to inject disinfectant in Covid-19 patients.
The pandemic will “probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better”, Trump said, reading from scripted remarks. “Something I don’t like saying about things, but that’s the way it is.”
It was a marked shift from his claims last month the virus is “fading away” and “dying out”. And having once dismissed its remnants as “embers”, he now conceded that it is raging in states led by Republican governors.
California cases set to overtake New York's
California on Tuesday became the second US state after New York to report more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases, according to a Reuters tally of county data.
Reuters reports that most populous US state has a total of 400,166 Covid-19 cases, putting it on the verge of surpassing New York - the original epicentre of the nation’s outbreak – for the highest number of infections.
If California were a country, and it overtakes New York, it would rank fifth in the world for total Covid-19 cases behind only the United States, Brazil, India and Russia. New York currently has over 412,800 total cases and is adding on average 700 new cases a day in July. In California there is an average of 8,300 new cases a day.
The rapid increase of cases has made it difficult to trace the pathogen’s path through the community through contact tracing, a process of interviewing people who test positive for the virus to find out how they were exposed, and whom they in turn might have exposed, said California Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly.
“No one anticipated building a program to contact trace the number of cases we’re seeing here,” Dr. Ghaly said at a news conference, referring to Los Angeles and other counties struggling to trace cases of the disease.
China's Sinovac vaccine becomes third worldwide to enter Phase 3 clinical trial
A Chinese-made vaccine against the new coronavirus entered the final stage of testing Tuesday in Brazil, where volunteers received the first doses of what officials hope will be a game-changer in the global pandemic, AFP reports.
The vaccine, developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, became the third in the world to enter Phase 3 clinical trials, or large-scale testing on humans - the last step before regulatory approval.
Around 9,000 health workers across six Brazilian states will receive the vaccine, known as CoronaVac, in two doses over the next three months under the study. Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said Monday initial results were expected within 90 days.
Sinovac is partnering with a Brazilian public health research center, the Butantan Institute, on the trials. If the vaccine proves safe and effective, the institute will have the right to produce 120 million doses under the deal, according to officials.
Brazil is also helping carry out Phase 3 testing of another experimental vaccine, developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. It has a similar deal to produce that vaccine domestically if it is successful in tests, which are also being carried out in Britain and South Africa.
You can keep up with the coronavirus vaccine race with our tracker here:
Trump urges Americans to wear masks
At a White House press briefing on coronavirus held without public health experts in attendance, US President Donald Trump noted a “concerning rise” in coronavirus cases in parts of the southern United States and endorsed the wearing of masks, saying, the government is “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene – wash your hands every chance you get”.
He also asked younger people to “avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings”.
Trump, who has downplayed the importance of masks, saying in a Fox news interview on Sunday that they could “cause problems” and who has himself refused to wear masks a number of times, asked Americans to wear face coverings “whether you like the mask or not”.
He said, “We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance wear a mask. Get a mask whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact they have an effect and we need everything we can get.”
The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.
Updated
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world for the next few hours.
As always, it would be good to hear from you – send tips, suggestions, questions and recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix to me on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
After repeatedly downplaying the importance of masks, US President Donald Trump today in a coronavirus press briefing – held without health experts in attendance – asked Americans to face masks wear masks ‘whether they like it or not’.
Meanwhile, a third coronavirus vaccine has started the final testing phase. Developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, the vaccine entered the final stage of testing Tuesday in Brazil, where volunteers received the first doses of what officials hope will be a game-changer in the global pandemic.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- There are 14.8m coronavirus cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and 613,232 known deaths.
- The US president Donald Trump has asked Americans to wear masks “whether you like the mask or not”, despite refusing to wear one himself on many occasions. The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.
- Brazil has confirmed 41,008 more cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,367 related deaths, the country’s health ministry has said. Brazil has registered nearly 2.2m cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 81,487, according to ministry data.
- The euro hit an 18-month high and stock markets gained ground after the EU agreed a €750bn pandemic recovery fund, in a deal struck hot on the heels of reports that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready within months.After more than four days of tortuous negotiation, the EU’s 27 leaders resolved to issue debt jointly, with the proceeds to be disbursed to countries wrestling with an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
- The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19. The data would help authorities track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
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Covid-19 is showing no signs of “slowing down” in the Americas. Carissa Etienne, the Pan American Health Organization director, said there were surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Etienne also said some central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the pandemic began.
- UK records 110 new coronavirus-related deaths. A further 110 people have died in the UK after testing positive for Covid-19 across all settings – including hospitals and the wider community. The total number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the country now stands at 45,422, according to government figures.
- Spain will send €1.7 billion in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus outbreak. Spain will send €1.7bn in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday. Spain hopes to save lives and strengthen public health systems.
- Iran announces record daily deaths. The health ministry said 229 people have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a new high as the country struggles to contain the virus.
- Italy to receive €210bn from new EU fund. Some EU member states have been setting out how much financial support they are likely to receive following the €750bn deal struck at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Tuesday morning.
